COLUMBIANA COUNTY Fair ends its run with fun on farm

Five agriculture pioneers were honored during the weeklong county fair.
LISBON -- The Columbiana County Fair concluded Sunday with agriculture activities such as a bale toss, cow chip bingo and a combine demolition derby. The final event of the week was a car demolition derby Sunday evening.
Paid attendance was 6,152 Tuesday, 7,672 Wednesday and 5,518 Thursday. Fair officials could not be reached this morning for final tallies.
Hall of Fame
Five Columbiana County agriculture pioneers were inducted during the week into the county Agriculture Hall of Fame.
John Jacob Bowman of Center Township was an early settler. A wheelwright and tanner, he owned 529 acres and was a county commissioner from 1809 to 1816 and an associate judge of the circuit court from 1817 to 1838.
Samuel Tritten owned farms along what is now state Routes 172 and 164 in the early 1900s. The farm on Route 172 is still owned by Tritten family members. The Center Township farmer was known for his expertise in breeding Holstein dairy cattle, and his herds formed the foundation for many of today's Holstein herds in the county. He operated Sam Tritten Dairy and was also a potato pioneer, owning one of the first mechanical potato planters in the area.
Kenneth D. Eells was a commercial egg producer and grain farmer in Elkrun Township in the mid-20th century. He was a conservationist ahead of his time as one of the first no-till farmers in the area. He was a member of the Beaver Board of Education and a founding board member of the Columbiana County Career and Technical Center.
R. Dale Miller operated Orchard Knoll Poultry Farm and Hatchery on the north edge of Lisbon from 1923 to 1958. He was a World War I veteran and shipped chicks from his farm east as far as Maine and west as far as Texas.
J. Herbert Thompson was owner of Vernon Dell Farms and dairy in the East Liverpool area. He was a Sealtest distributor in the 1950s. Superior purchased the dairy in the 1960s and Thompson switched to beef cattle, raising registered Herefords on 700 acres at three locations. He also founded the Vernon Dell tractor dealership that now has 25 employees.
Thompson was a Columbiana County Fair director for 20 years and a member of the Columbiana County Regional Planning Commission for 36 years.